Photo gallery: Era is ending at Cleveland school district headquarters

An era is ending at the Cleveland Metropolitan School District's headquarters building at 1380 E. Sixth St., which has been sold to become a luxury Drury Plaza Hotel.
The first of the district's employees to vacate the building, the ornate home of Cleveland schools since 1930, will start moving out next Monday, Aug. 5. The last will exit by Sept. 20. Soon afterwards, St. Louis-based Drury Hotels will gain control of the property to begin the huge task of converting it to a business-oriented hotel.
(CLICK HERE FOR A PHOTO GALLERY OF THE EAST SIXTH STREET PROPERTY THAT WILL BECOME THE DRURY PLAZA HOTEL. GO HERE FOR A LOOK AT WHAT DRURY HAS DONE WITH HOTELS IN OTHER MARKETS.)
Photos of the interior of the six-story building designed by famed Cleveland architecture firm Walker & Weeks show some of the splendor and crowded workspaces the school personnel will be leaving behind.
The building is noted for its two-story marble lined lobby, according to the “Guide to Cleveland Architecture,” and sandstone-clad exterior with a generally classical design.
Jonathan Sandvick, a Cleveland architect who often works on historic preservation projects but is not involved in the pending Drury job, said, “It truly is an extraordinary building. It is significant to the Group Plan designed by Daniel Burnham. It has terrific, large corridors and arched ceilings. It also has the dignity and prominence and architectural detail to be a high-end hotel property.”
Drury envisions more than 100 rooms when it finishes the conversion of the building's offices and meeting rooms to a hotel in 2015. The company plans to seek federal historic tax credits for its project, which means it will have to remain true to certain aspects of the original design.
Herbert Wedemeier, general counsel of Drury Southwest Hotels LLC, said, “People think historic tax credit projects are great — and they are. But they are critical. You have to satisfy a lot of people that what you are doing is appropriate, and you use every bit of that credit.”
Drury has never put a dollar estimate on the construction cost at the building it bought from the schools for $4.84 million on June 5. Mr. Wedemeier declined to disclose an estimate, but he noted the amount of capital it will take to bring the building up to contemporary heating and cooling and other standards is so substantial “the schools really did the right thing by selling it.”
Visitors to the building through the years frequently note that in the winter they will freeze on one floor, then go to another that is so hot the windows are open. That is a sure sign of significant energy costs to the structure.

A fresh start

Roseann Canfora, the district's spokeswoman said few employees are nostalgic about leaving the grandeur behind.
“There is a feeling this is a new era for the schools,” Dr. Canfora said, referring to what's called “The Cleveland Plan” to revitalize the district's effectiveness in education.
The move to three floors of contemporary offices at 1111 Superior Ave. is part of the drive to become more efficient. School employees will use contemporary work stations that Eaton Corp. left behind in its move to a new campus in Beachwood.
However, not all the workers at the administration building are bound for the sleek corporate building and spare work stations on Superior. The district's security team, athletics department and administration of its special education department will move to East High School. Records of the thousands of students who attended Cleveland schools through the decades and other archives will go to a new record center at South High School.
“The CEO (Eric Gordon) often says we are a city here,” Dr. Canfora said. “Several departments will have better designed offices and the room to do what they need to without tripping over old records.”
An auction last March set the table for the sale of the building to capitalize on its proximity to the nearby Global Health Center and Cleveland Convention Center. Another auction in the future will truly close the door on the building. The district is planning to auction off desks, chairs, credenzas and other fixtures. Employees are being told to leave all the extras in the old place, even if it is a favorite chair.
Robert Brown, director of the Cleveland City Planning Commission, said it is appropriate that the school office building become a hotel. That will provide more public use for passersby and enliven the prominent outdoor mall more than the school building did, he said.